


Handwritten Confession

by mseg_21



Series: Tumblr Prompts [3]
Category: IT (2017), IT - Stephen King
Genre: First Kiss, Getting Together, High School AU, M/M, Reddie, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-27
Updated: 2018-10-27
Packaged: 2019-08-08 13:33:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,997
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16430366
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mseg_21/pseuds/mseg_21
Summary: Based on the prompt: Richie writing something weird and cryptic in Eddie's year book.You can  send prompts to my tumblrjem-castairs-is-perfection





	Handwritten Confession

“Can you believe we’re done with school? Like, forever?” Richie asked while spinning in Eddie’s desk chair. 

“Richie, don’t do that, you’re going to get dizzy.” Eddie chided, without even turning to look at him. “And it’s not forever. We still have college.” 

“Fine. Done with highschool at least.” Richie sain. He stopped spinning and moved on to rolling the chair around the room, much to Eddie’s annoyance. “Can you believe that?”

“It is kind of crazy, isn’t it?” Eddie replied, moving around the room himself, getting a bag ready for their sleepover at Bill’s. 

Richie had shown up a little while ago so that Eddie could drive them both there, where they would be meeting the rest of their friends to celebrate the end of high school while watching movies, filling their bellies up with pizza and snacks and getting drunk. Well, Richie wasn’t drinking, he was supposed to get on a plane next afternoon and he didn’t want to be hungover for that. He was meeting with his parents, who were currently in California with Richie’s grandparents, who wanted their grandson over to give him his graduation present. 

“It’s beyond crazy. No more Derry High, no more detention, no more Henry Bowers or Greta Bowie-” 

“Can you believe she signed my yearbook?” Eddie cut in with a snort, shoving a pair of socks inside his bag.

Richie stopped the chair abruptly, whirling around to face Eddie. “The fuck? What did she write? Was it something offensive? Because if it was we can drive there on our way to Bill’s and egg her house. I still haven’t forgiven her for writing ‘Loser’ in your cast that one time.”

“She didn’t write anything bad, don’t worry about it.” Eddie said, then he smiled sweetly at Richie. “Thank you, though.”

“Anytime, but forgive me if I don’t believe she didn’t write something bad, it’s fucking Greta Bowie we’re talking about.” Richie said and used his long legs to propel the chair towards Eddie’s desk, where Eddie had left his yearbook earlier. 

He opened it to the signatures section and let out a whistle when he saw just how many messages there were. “Damn, Eds, when did you get so popular?”

“I didn’t,” Eddie said, with a laugh. “It’s mostly people from the track team and you guys. Your message alone took pretty much half the space.” 

Richie ran his fingers over his messy handwriting that in fact took over most of the page. “Seems fitting, since I take all the space in your heart.” He said, blowing Eddie a kiss. 

Eddie rolled his eyes, the corners of his mouth curling up and Richie smirked at the pink blush on his cheeks. 

He looked down, reading over what other people wrote. There was the usual stuff, countless ‘never change’ and ‘stay cool’ and ‘have a great summer’, Greta’s message being one of those, she had even signed off with a heart next to her name. 

“I will miss you?!” Richie shrieked, in disbelief. “Did she really write that? Well, Greta, I know for a fact Eddie won’t fucking miss  _ you _ .” He said, sticking his tongue out at the book in his lap, as if Greta could see him through it. 

Eddie laughed, eyes crinkling in the corners. “Well you’re right about that, but I’m pretty sure she didn’t even know it was my yearbook. Someone must have handed it over to her.” 

“I don’t get it,” Richie said, shaking his head, “Why sign someone’s yearbook if you’re going to write some shitty generic message.”

“Are you telling me you didn’t write ‘never change’ at least once on someone’s yearbook today?” 

“Well, yeah, but I meant it. Like with you! I don’t ever want you to change, Eds, that’s why I wrote it.” Richie said, shrugging. “But take this girl from my English class for example, she wrote that, even though she spent the past year telling me to shut the fuck up every day. Clearly she thinks I  _ should  _ change.” 

Eddie shook his head, laughing. “Well, you don’t. Need to change, that is.” He said. “But I get what you’re saying. All those ‘we should’ve hung out more’’ and ‘wish I could’ve known you better’, like you could’ve, yeah, you just never tried.”

“Fucking idiots, all of them. They didn’t know what they were missing.” Richie said, then he winked at Eddie. “Me, on the other hand, I always knew just how special you were, Eds.”

“Shut up,” Eddie said, tossing a pillow at Richie but still smiling at him, before continuing to fold up his clothes for tomorrow. 

Richie kept reading through the messages on Eddie’s yearbook, making it to the more personalized ones. Most of them were from the losers, he recognized Stan’s neat handwriting, Bev’s bright pink ink, Mike and Ben’s sweet words and Bill’s sketch, he had drawn animated versions of each of them in their yearbooks. Richie also recognized the names of Eddie’s track team members, Eddie wasn’t particularly close to them but they all wrote about how great Eddie was and how happy they were to have him on the team. It made Richie smile, knowing that there were people outside their group that knew just how amazing Eddie was.

Then Richie’s eyes caught something that made his breath catch in his throat in surprise. Eddie must have heard him because he whirled around, his face pinched in confusion. 

“What? Did someone write something bad?” He asked, and he tried to sound unbothered by it, but Richie could tell that the idea of having a rude comment in his yearbook forever didn’t seem appealing at all. 

“Uh, no.” Richie said, clearing his throat to try and get rid of the lump that had formed there. “Someone, uh -  someone asked you out. On your yearbook.”

Eddie rolled his eyes, annoyed. “Yeah, right. Not funny, Richie.”

“I’m not joking, Eds.” Richie said, earnestly, but Eddie only stared blankly at him. “Fine, here, ‘Hey Eddie, I never gathered enough courage to say this to you in person, but I think you’re really nice and really cute, if for some reason you ever want to go out, give me a call, have a great summer, with love, Aaron.’ Who the  _ fuck  _ is Aaron?” Richie asked, voice an octave higher at the last sentence.

By then, Eddie was sporting an adorable blush.“It’s uh, a guy from my History class. We did a project together this year, but I- Did he really write all that?”

“See for yourself.” Richie said, handing him the yearbook, watching him closely as Eddie read the message. He saw his eyebrows disappear behind his hairline and a small, disbelieving smile appear on his face, the sight making Richie’s stomach clench. 

“Are you- uh. Will you take him up on the offer?” Richie said with a small voice.

Eddie’s eyes snapped up to meet Richie’s. “I- uh. Do you think I should?” 

_ No _ , Richie thought and he almost blurted it out. “If that’s what you want.” He said instead but the words left a bitter taste in his mouth. He wished he could tell Eddie not to go out with this Aaron guy, but it wasn’t his place nor it was fair to him. 

Eddie stared at Richie, as if expecting him to say more but when he didn’t, his eyes moved to the yearbook again.

“So,” Richie prompted, as he waited impatiently for Eddie to make a decision. “Is it? What you want?”

Eddie closed the yearbook, shaking his head. “No, Aaron is a good guy but I just- It wouldn’t be fair to him.”

“Because you don’t see him like that?” Richie couldn’t help but ask, the knot in his stomach loosening now that he knew Eddie wouldn’t be going on a date with someone anytime soon. 

Eddie stared at him, unanswering and Richie stared back, feeling like there was something happening between them, but he didn’t know what. He racked his brain trying to make sense of the look on Eddie’s face but before he could figure it out, Eddie sighed and looked away. “Uh yeah, sure, that’s why.” He said, taking a couple of steps back. Richie didn’t know how Eddie had ended up standing in the V of Richie’s legs without him noticing it. “I need to grab some stuff from my bathroom and then I’m ready to go.” 

Richie nodded, dumbly, watching as Eddie left the room. The yearbook was back in his hands and he opened it again, his eyes immediately going to Aaron’s message. 

Earlier that day, when Eddie had given the yearbook to him so that he could sign it, Richie had had a hard time trying to figure out what to write and it wasn’t just because Eddie had threatened to beat him up if he wrote anything about his dick or Eddie’s mom, ruling out most of his repertoire, but because of a conversation he’d had with Stan and Bev a couple of days before. 

Because Aaron hadn’t been the only one to think about confessing his feelings through a yearbook message, Richie had thought that too. Beverly had agreed it was a romantic idea and that he should do it, Stan on the other hand had said it was stupid and that he should tell Eddie in person. In the end he hadn’t listened to either of them, writing a loving yet completely platonic message on Eddie’s yearbook and refusing to say anything to him. Seeing this Aaron guy’s message made Richie wonder if he had lost his chance. 

_ Or maybe not, _ he thought. 

Richie looked cautiously at the closed door before grabbing a pen from Eddie’s desk and filling yet more of Eddie’s yearbook with his messy handwriting. Before he could sign his name, the door opened and he tossed the yearbook and the pen on the desk before standing up abruptly, almost sending the chair flying to the floor. 

Eddie raised an eyebrow at him, “Are you okay?”

“Yeah.” Richie chuckled nervously, hanging his hand on the back of his neck. Eddie narrowed his eyes at him, suspicious. “Uh. Bill called, wondering where we are. We should get going. You’re ready right?” Eddie nodded. “Great, let’s go then.” 

Richie steered Eddie outside of the room by his shoulders, sending a final look to Eddie’s desk and his yearbook.

-

The next morning, Eddie woke up to the sound of Richie’s alarm blaring right in his ear. He searched blindly for it, hitting Richie instead, who had fallen asleep next to him at some point last night in the process.

“Eds,” Richie whined against the pillow. “Turn that off.” 

“ _ That _ happens to be your alarm, Rich. The one you set because you’re supposed to get home?” Eddie told him, but still turned off the alarm for the sake of their friends, that were sprawled around them in the living room, still sleeping.

“Ugh. I don’t wanna. I just want to sleep.” He said, covering his face with the blanket Bill had given them last night.

“You can sleep on your flight.” Eddie said, getting said blanket away from him. Then he pushed at Richie’s shoulder until he sat up, rubbing the sleep from his eyes before putting on his glasses. “Now go get ready.” 

Richie sighed, stretching his arms over his head with a yelp. Eddie’s eyes drifted to the sliver of skin showing from under Richie’s shirt and he shut his eyes to keep from staring. “Wait, you’re going back to sleep?” Richie asked, and Eddie nodded, already curling up under the blanket that was all his now. “That’s not fair.”

“I don’t have a plane to catch.” 

“But you have to take me home.” Richie whined, nudging Eddie insistently. “You promised.”

Eddie groaned, “Fine, wake me up when you’re ready to leave.” He said, before closing his eyes, hearing Richie mutter something before making his way upstairs, where their things were.

After what felt like five minutes, Richie was nudging him awake and Eddie felt like hitting him. When he had agreed to drive Richie to his house in the morning, he hadn’t taken into consideration he would be tired and hungover. 

“ _ Eds _ .”

“Ugh. I’m coming, Richie.” Eddie said, annoyed, finally crawling out of the blankets.

Richie snorted. “That’s what she said.” 

Eddie rolled his eyes, throwing a pillow at Richie’s face as he stood up. 

They said goodbye to their friends, Richie more effusively than Eddie, since he wouldn’t be seeing them for a week, meanwhile Eddie would probably be seeing them tomorrow at the latest. 

When they arrived at Richie’s house they sat in silence in the car for a couple of minutes. 

“Thank you for driving me home, Eds.”

“You’re welcome, Rich. Are you sure you don’t need a ride to the airport?”

Richie shook his head, offering a smile. “I’m not making my Eddie Spaghetti drive for an hour just so he can stare at my beautiful face some more before I leave. You’re tired, you should go sleep.”

“I wouldn’t be staring at your face, I would be staring at the road.” Eddie said, deadpan, before yawning. “But I guess you’re right about me being tired.”

“I was also right about my face being beautiful, which you didn’t deny.” Richie singsonged, nuzzling Eddie’s shoulder. 

Eddie pushed him away trying to fight off a smile. And a blush. “Don’t you have a plane to catch?”

“Yeah, I do.” Richie said with a sigh, grabbing his bags from the back seat. 

“Goodbye, Rich.” 

Richie scoffed, “That’s all? A ‘goodbye Rich’ is all I get from my best friend? Not even an ‘I will miss you’?”

“You’re leaving for a week, Richie.” Eddie told him, raising an skeptical eyebrow. 

“So you won’t miss me?” Richie pouted. 

Eddie rolled his eyes, huffing out a laugh. “Of course I’ll miss you, dummy.” He said, and Richie grinned. “But you have to go.”

“Fine.” Richie groaned, then he leaned over the console and planted a loud kiss on Eddie’s cheek. “I’ll miss you too, Eds.” 

“Richie!” Eddie said, exasperated when Richie only stayed in his seat, grinning at Eddie. 

“Okay, okay!” Richie said, finally getting out of the car. He waved at Eddie from outside, “Bye, Eds.”

Eddie waved back, and drove off, knowing very well that if he didn’t, Richie wouldn’t go inside. When he arrived at his house, sneaking in silently so that his mother wouldn’t hear him, he felt pathetic by how much he missed Richie already, even if he had just said goodbye to him, even if the had spent the night together, even if he would be seeing him again in a week. 

He groaned, falling face first on his bed. He had thought keeping his feelings in check was hard when Richie was around, it turns out it’s even worse when he isn’t. He rolled over, noticing his yearbook had fallen to the floor. 

He groaned, “Richie, you damn slob.” He muttered, stretching over the edge of the bed enough to pick it up. He peered over the pages, laughing at some pictures and cringing at some others, until he made it to the signatures section. 

He found himself reading Aaron’s message over and over again. Eddie hadn’t been lying when he told Richie he was a good guy, but he also hadn’t been lying when he said it wouldn’t fair to him if Eddie went out on a date with him, especially since he was so hung up on someone else. His best friend, no less. 

Eddie sighed, he wished it had been Richie who wrote that message.

He was about to close the yearbook when something caught his eye. Right under Aaron’s message, were two lines that Eddie was pretty sure weren’t there yesterday. 

“I never took you for granted, granted I wish I had taken you out.” Eddie read, eyes widening both at the line and the handwriting. “What the fuck?  _ What the fuck? _ ” 

There was no mistaking who that handwriting belonged to, the same person who had filled half a page with countless ‘Eds’ and ‘Eddie Spaghetti’ and every joke he could think of that didn’t involve Eddie’s mom. 

“What the fuck?” Eddie muttered again, breathing speeding up, scanning the page for something else that Richie could’ve written, like a ‘just kidding, Eds’ or a ‘haha, you fell for it didn’t you?” but there wasn’t anything like that. Part of him, knew Richie wouldn’t do something like that but Eddie made a habit of overthinking things and having his lifelong crush confess to him after years of pining felt too good to be true.

Eddie jumped from the bed, he couldn’t wait an entire week to confront Richie and he wasn’t doing this over the phone, because there were only two ways this could go, either Richie meant it and Eddie would very much like to kiss him or it was all a joke and Eddie would gladly punch him in the face. Either way, he needed Richie to be there in person.

He grabbed the yearbook, picked up his car keys and rushed outside. 

“Eddie bear, is that you?” Sonia called from her bedroom. 

“Shit.” Eddie muttered, he didn’t have time to deal with his mother, Richie would be leaving his house to go to the airport any moment now and Eddie would miss his chance to talk to him. “Yeah, Ma, I’m- I was making you breakfast but we ran out of- of milk, I’m going to get some.” 

And before she could reply, either in agreement or to tell him there were several boxes of milk in the pantry, Eddie slipped through the door and ran to his car. 

He made it to Richie’s in record time. There was a cab parked in front of the house, but Richie wasn’t outside. The front door was opened and Eddie rushed inside, running into Richie who was coming down the stairs, carrying a suitcase. 

“Eds?” Richie asked, blinking at Eddie in confusion. “What are you doing here? You miss me already?” He said, smirking. 

Eddie ignored the questions, instead he opened his yearbook and shoved it into Richie’s face, pointing at the two lines that had made him rush here. “Care to explain  _ this _ ?”

Richie fixed his glasses, squinting at the words before his eyes widened comically. “That’s- that wasn’t me, Eds.” He said, but Eddie could see right through his lie. 

“Cut the bullshit, Richie, I’ve been staring at your awful handwriting for more than half my life.” 

“Shit.” Richie muttered, biting his lower lip, nervously. “I was kinda hoping I’d be on the other side of the country when you read that.” 

“Because you knew I wouldn’t take the joke well?” Eddie asked, narrowing his eyes at Richie. 

“The joke?” Richie asked, frowning. “Eddie, I wanted a whole country between us to spare me the inevitable rejection I knew was coming.” 

Eddie stared at him, warily. “So it wasn’t a joke?”

Richie shook his head, “I- no. I meant it, what I wrote.” 

Now Eddie’s eyes were the ones that widened, “Oh.”

Richie grimaced, refusing to look at Eddie. “I know, I know, I’m sorry, Eds, but Aaron’s message? I had the same idea, before he did. And I was going to, confess my feelings and shit that way, even if Stan said it was stupid, but I chickened out and I- ouch!” Richie’s rambling was cut off by Eddie using his yearbook to hit his friend, hard. “What the hell, Eddie?”

“What the hell yourself, Richie?” Eddie said, glaring at Richie.  “You can’t just write some cryptic message in my yearbook and disappear for a week!”

Richie knitted his eyebrows together. “You’re not- that’s what you’re mad about?” Eddie nodded. “Not the part where I caught feelings for you, potentially ruining our friendship?”

Eddie’s expression softened, hearing the worry in Richie’s voice. “You didn’t ruin our friendship, Rich.”

“I didn’t?”

“If you did then I did too.”

Richie’s eyes widened again, when the meaning behind Eddie’s word registered. “Do you mean- are you saying what I think you’re saying?”

“I’m saying, I wished I’d taken you out too.” Eddie said, voicing the words Richie wrote in his yearbook. Even if he was ninety nine percent sure that Richie’s feelings mirrored his, saying the words out loud still made Eddie feel like he was standing at the edge of a cliff, ready to take to jump. 

But the way Richie’s eyes lit up, the biggest, dopiest grin appearing on his face at Eddie’s admission, made it worth the risk. 

Eddie found himself smiling back, just as bright, until there was the sound of a car honking loudly. 

“Fuck! I forgot my cab was here already.” Richie cursed, glaring at the door behind Eddie. 

“Shit, your flight! You have to go!”

Richie groaned. “But I didn’t want to go before, I definitely don’t do now! I want to take you out on that date!” He said, whining like a kid.

Eddie smiled softly at him. “I do too, but your parents will kill you if you miss your flight and then we won’t get to go on our date.”

“ _ Fine _ .” Richie sighed, picking up his suitcase and dragging it behind him on his way to the door, shoulders hunched over, pouting. 

Before he was out of the house, Eddie rushed over to him. “Wait! You forgot something.”

“What’s tha-”

Richie’s question was cut off by Eddie pulling him down by the lapels of his shirt, pressing his lips against Richie’s. He barely had time to register what was happening, before Eddie was pulling back, smirking up at him. 

“I didn’t want to wait an entire week to do that.” 

Richie sighed, staring at Eddie with a dopey smile and a dazed look. “I’m glad you didn’t.” 

Eddie chuckled, patting Richie’s chest. “Okay, now you  _ really  _ need to go.”

“I will miss you.” 

“We already went through this earlier, Rich.” Eddie said, rolling his eyes, but Richie just blinked at him. “I already said I would miss you too.”

“But you’ll miss me more now that we’re boyfriends.” Richie told him, waggling his eyebrows. Then he frowned. “We  _ are  _ boyfriends, right?”

Eddie stood on his tiptoes, kissing Richie’s cheek. “If that’s what you want.”

“There’s nothing I want more, Eds.” Richie said, chasing Eddie’s lips as he pulled away but before he could kiss him, there was another honk.

“I’m coming!” Richie yelled at the cab driver. When he turned around to face Eddie again, he found him smirking. “What?”

“That’s what he said.” Eddie said, using Richie’s joke from earlier.

Richie let out a loud laugh, ruffling Eddie’s hair. “Eddie Spaghetti gets off a good one!”

Out of the corner of his eye, Eddie saw the cab driver exit the car, no doubt tired of waiting. Eddie pushed a still laughing Richie towards the door. “Jesus christ, Richie,  _ go _ !”

“I’m going, I’m going!” Richie said, stepping down the front steps. 

“Call me when you land?” Eddie said from the front porch.

“And every day after that, Eddie my love!” Richie answered, waving at Eddie while getting in the car. 

Eddie waved too, until the car and Richie were out of sight. 

Then he drove back to his house and snuck in for a second time that day, thankful that his mother appeared to have fallen asleep again.

The empty feeling on his chest that came with Richie’s absence was back and Eddie searched for his phone, planning on texting Richie even if he wouldn’t see it until a few hours from now. But when he unlocked his phone he saw there was already a message from him.

‘Missing you already, Eds. I’m gonna spend the entire week coming up with the fucking best first date ever!’ 

The message was followed by a bunch of heart emojis that had Eddie fighting off a smile. And a blush.

He was already counting down the days for his boyfriend to come back. 

**Author's Note:**

> Leave a comment or come talk to me on tumblr.   
> [jem-castairs-is-perfection](http://jem-carstairs-is-perfection.tumblr.com/)


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